Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reiterated that Iran is moving “closer and closer” to building a nuclear weapon and warned that his county may take action against the Islamic Republic before the US acts.

Netanyahu told CBS News that Iran is “edging up to the red
line. They haven't crossed it yet…” but “they have to be
told in no uncertain terms that that will not be allowed to
happen."

Netanyahu stressed that Israel was not willing to wait as long as
the US to take action against Iran’s nuclear program.

"Our clocks are ticking at a different pace. We're closer
than the United States. We're more vulnerable. And therefore,
we'll have to address this question of how to stop Iran, perhaps
before the United States does," Netanyahu said.

He explained that Tehran was building centrifuges at an
accelerated pace, and that they may be nuclear-ready “within
a few weeks.”

Netanyahu’s fear is that Iran’s policies would not change under
new leadership of the moderate cleric and former nuclear
negotiator Hassan Rouhani, who is to be sworn in as president on
August 3.

"He's criticizing his predecessor [President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad] for being a wolf in wolf's clothing. His strategy is
to be a wolf in sheep's clothing. Smile and build a bomb,”
he said, urging the US to warn Rouhani that it will not allow any
further nuclear activity to go on unpunished.

Netanyahu made it clear that Israel’s position would not change
after Iran held its election.

"If sanctions don't work, they have to know that you'll be
prepared to take military action -- that's the only thing that
will get their attention," he said.

For years, Iran and the West have locked horns over Tehran’s
nuclear program. Western nations maintain that it intends to
develop a nuclear weapon, while Iran claims its research is for
peaceful purposes.

But the West has since carried out a series of devastating
sanctions against Iran, isolating the country and intensifying
the standoff.

Meanwhile, an Israeli official speaking anonymously suggested
that Iran may still try to strike a deal without really wrapping
up its nuclear program, ahead of the next round of talks between
six world powers regarding its nuclear future.

The Israeli side is of the opinion that Tehran will offer a
“temporary cessation” of its uranium enrichment, or
maybe converting some of it uranium to lower levels of enrichment
in return for a possible “partial lifting of sanction”,
the official told AFP. He called it “an insignificant and
meaningless concession” and a “deliberate policy of the
Iranian regime to deceive the international community.”

"Israel will totally oppose such an Iranian idea, and we will
reject all proposals that do not include the following: a
complete cessation of all uranium enrichment; the removal from
Iran of all enriched materials; the closure of the illicit
underground facility in Qom; and the total cessation of work at
the plutonium reactor," the Israeli official added.